Last night, on 60 Minutes, the story was about a preschooler who died of a prescription drug overdose. The parents are charged with murder. They blame the doctor.
This child was being treated by a psychiatrist for bipolar disorder, since she was two.
The kid was on four different antidepressants, off label, which means none of these drugs were developed or tested for little kids. Children are just as likely as adults to be treated with powerful anti psychotic drugs, although children are more likely to receive the newer "atypical" anti psychotics. In six out of 10 visits, patients regardless of age receive a combination of at least two drugs.
A 40 percent increase in bipolar disorder in children should mean a corresponding increase in adults with bipolar disorder. Apparently that isn't the case. The study that provides this alarming data doesn't answer this crucial question. This means we're either discovering previously unrecognized bipolar disorder in children, or that they're misdiagnosing children. Are we only now discovering a huge reservoir of untreated psychiatric illness? Or is there an epidemic, not of disease, but of misdiagnosis and over treatment?
How does a doctor diagnose a two year old a having bipolar disorder? Oh, irritability may be the only sign. Have any of these doctors heard of the terrible twos? The horrible threes? The obnoxious fours? The obominable fives? The offensive sixs? Then it starts over again with the teenage years.
What do these drugs do to the developing brain of a child? Who knows? No one even knows what causes the disruption of brain chemicals or even if that is the basis of bipolar. It's all guess work.
Give me a break!
Where is the common sense here? A baby with bipolar disorder? This is the same psychobabble as repressed memories was. Repressed memories has been debunked and is a thing of the past. The damage done was relatively minor, confined to hysterical adults and a few hundred psychiatrists that jumped on that gravy train.
Flooding a child's body and brain with chemicals is something altogether different.
What we have here is a huge reservoir of parents who have money to support the health industry and and drug companies.
Allow me to go on a rant for a moment...
Have you noticed the many drug commercials there are on TV these days?
Ask your doctor about----------- (Insert the popular name of a drug here. ) You are directed to diagnose your own health problem, tell your doctor what drugs you need, then pay up.
Do you hear the disclaimers? One advertisement asks you to trade your stuffy nose for cataracts and glaucoma, among other things. ( I'll keep my stuffy nose, thank you. Pass the tissues please.) If you read the small print (read fast) it says, the drug company doesn't know how or why the drug works.
Somehow I think that knowing how and why a drug works should be a prerequisite to the FDA approving it.
Who names this stuff? "FLOMAX" So a fellow with an enlarged prostrate can watch the football game without having to pee so often. (maybe he should drink less beer at the game and drive home safely instead?) Again with the disclaimers... Might cause a sudden change in blood pressure when standing, rarely causing fainting, but just in case Guy, make sure you don't hit anything, or the person in the seats in front of you at the game when you fall down. Tell your doctor if you have this, that, and any other things.... Shouldn't your doctor know these things? Tell your eye doctor if you plan on eye surgery that you have taken this drug. Why? they don't explain that part.
I love the disclaimers at the end of the adds for erectile dysfunction... If you have a sudden loss of vision discontinue the use of this product. I guess great gram ma was right.
What about all those class action suits the drug companies are dealing with? Vioxx, Bextra, Celebrex, Baycol, Ephedra and Fen Phen just to name a few. Only the lawyers make any money on class actions suits, I guess that means the legal industry gets it's share of the pie as well.
What is it the government's food and drug administration do for us again?
The bottom line is we all have to become smart consumers. We seem to put more time and energy into reading up on the benefits and risks involved when buying a new car than we do when taking prescription medications or giving them to our kids. We have to ask questions, like, has this drug been approved for children? Maybe we should rely on our own good common sense when dealing with a kids behavior too. If you have concerns about your child's growth and development, there are more books on child behavior than you can shake a stick at, do your homework at the library before you run to put your children on drugs.
This child was being treated by a psychiatrist for bipolar disorder, since she was two.
The kid was on four different antidepressants, off label, which means none of these drugs were developed or tested for little kids. Children are just as likely as adults to be treated with powerful anti psychotic drugs, although children are more likely to receive the newer "atypical" anti psychotics. In six out of 10 visits, patients regardless of age receive a combination of at least two drugs.
A 40 percent increase in bipolar disorder in children should mean a corresponding increase in adults with bipolar disorder. Apparently that isn't the case. The study that provides this alarming data doesn't answer this crucial question. This means we're either discovering previously unrecognized bipolar disorder in children, or that they're misdiagnosing children. Are we only now discovering a huge reservoir of untreated psychiatric illness? Or is there an epidemic, not of disease, but of misdiagnosis and over treatment?
How does a doctor diagnose a two year old a having bipolar disorder? Oh, irritability may be the only sign. Have any of these doctors heard of the terrible twos? The horrible threes? The obnoxious fours? The obominable fives? The offensive sixs? Then it starts over again with the teenage years.
What do these drugs do to the developing brain of a child? Who knows? No one even knows what causes the disruption of brain chemicals or even if that is the basis of bipolar. It's all guess work.
Give me a break!
Where is the common sense here? A baby with bipolar disorder? This is the same psychobabble as repressed memories was. Repressed memories has been debunked and is a thing of the past. The damage done was relatively minor, confined to hysterical adults and a few hundred psychiatrists that jumped on that gravy train.
Flooding a child's body and brain with chemicals is something altogether different.
What we have here is a huge reservoir of parents who have money to support the health industry and and drug companies.
Allow me to go on a rant for a moment...
Have you noticed the many drug commercials there are on TV these days?
Ask your doctor about----------- (Insert the popular name of a drug here. ) You are directed to diagnose your own health problem, tell your doctor what drugs you need, then pay up.
Do you hear the disclaimers? One advertisement asks you to trade your stuffy nose for cataracts and glaucoma, among other things. ( I'll keep my stuffy nose, thank you. Pass the tissues please.) If you read the small print (read fast) it says, the drug company doesn't know how or why the drug works.
Somehow I think that knowing how and why a drug works should be a prerequisite to the FDA approving it.
Who names this stuff? "FLOMAX" So a fellow with an enlarged prostrate can watch the football game without having to pee so often. (maybe he should drink less beer at the game and drive home safely instead?) Again with the disclaimers... Might cause a sudden change in blood pressure when standing, rarely causing fainting, but just in case Guy, make sure you don't hit anything, or the person in the seats in front of you at the game when you fall down. Tell your doctor if you have this, that, and any other things.... Shouldn't your doctor know these things? Tell your eye doctor if you plan on eye surgery that you have taken this drug. Why? they don't explain that part.
I love the disclaimers at the end of the adds for erectile dysfunction... If you have a sudden loss of vision discontinue the use of this product. I guess great gram ma was right.
What about all those class action suits the drug companies are dealing with? Vioxx, Bextra, Celebrex, Baycol, Ephedra and Fen Phen just to name a few. Only the lawyers make any money on class actions suits, I guess that means the legal industry gets it's share of the pie as well.
What is it the government's food and drug administration do for us again?
The bottom line is we all have to become smart consumers. We seem to put more time and energy into reading up on the benefits and risks involved when buying a new car than we do when taking prescription medications or giving them to our kids. We have to ask questions, like, has this drug been approved for children? Maybe we should rely on our own good common sense when dealing with a kids behavior too. If you have concerns about your child's growth and development, there are more books on child behavior than you can shake a stick at, do your homework at the library before you run to put your children on drugs.
posted by Gem_with_faraway_eyes | 6:18 AM
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